Birbs and Foxes

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Mission Details:

The water-drenched flatlands known as the Cattail Marsh certainly weren't much of a spectacle, at least during the day.  Not even the rays of the setting sun could fix that.  It was about as inviting as it looked, too.  One particular glaceon knew from experience that it was annoying to travel through the marsh, if not difficult.  Of course, the two birds with him would have little trouble other than occasionally having to move out of the way of a tree, since they could fly.  He could have frozen the water and just walked or even skated over it if he still had Ice Beam on his side, but he just HAD to go and use another TM, he couldn't just settle for what he already had....

"Frost Breath", what a ripoff.  All it had done to him was take away his ability to use Ice Beam.  There was nothing akin to any "Frost Breath" replacing it from what he could tell, he was just down a move due to some faulty TM.  Surely, this was the case.  It couldn't possibly be that this move in particular was just something that he could not properly use.  So he would have to walk through the marsh, but it wasn't like he hadn't done that before.  Besides.... it would be night soon.  He'd insisted on them coming later in the day for that specific reason.  For the light show.  "So, Linus, do you know why I wanted to come here so late?", he asked as he stopped at the edge of the water, taking a moment to speak to his companions before getting to the "fun" part.

Nearby, in a rather easy to climb tree, a little ball of brown fluff was sitting on a branch over the marsh in the hopes of drying off.  He'd heard this place had a pretty lightshow during the nights, but he hadn't expected it to be so wet.... despite it being a marsh.  He'd decided to sit in a tree, away from the water and hopefully safe from any lurking dangers, as he waited for the promised lights.  The trip here was a pain, he hoped it would at least be worth it.

(Sova's Energy: 38)
(Keith's Energy: 2)

"Hey!" Linus flared out a wing to point at Sova, "I said nothing about this! As much as I would be willing to help don't go about volunteering me for things without my permission," he seemed to be rather irritated about the glaceon's speech, not quite appreciating being told what to do by someone that needed so much therapy in his life. His feet readjusted their positions, prepared to take flight and avoid an Ice Beam if the glaceon decided to attack him for speaking out against him.

Acro was shocked to hear the glaceon volunteer his, as well as Linus and Keith's, assistance with raising the goomy and caring for it. He smiled a bit, happy that his friend was willing to help but feeling a bit guilty about it, but knowing he would need it. He listened to Linus speak, his "Thank You" being interrupted by the large bird that was high up in the trees. He had a point, it was not like Linus was Sova's property or something.

The goomy looked up at the sudden crowing from above, "Cluckooo~" it cooed silently at first before becoming amused with the name and giggling once more at it. He had forgotten about the existence of the two Taffys in the area, and was more focused on Cluckoo's strange demeanor and tone. What had gotten into his feathers? A bug? Why was he pointing at Spoop?
"Cookooo~" the goomy giggled.

"No need to thank me, Linus.", Sova sarcastically replied to the honchkrow, as if he'd received a thanks and not a criticism.
He was surprisingly calm about his reply, as he knew this alone would likely be enough to fluster Linus beyond what an insult could do. Even if it didn't, he felt very satisfied in just saying it.

The whishcash remained silent, observing and listening. He could tell this group was a bit dysfunctional, but they at least seemed interested in helping one another. That was good. No one got along perfectly, but if in the end one would choose to help instead of hinder, that was all that mattered. At least, to the jolly old whishcash.

Keith remained silent, not wanting to get in the middle of any arguments. If he stayed out of it, maybe no one would get mad at him. They'd just get mad at each other instead. Besides, he wouldn't know who to side with even if he decided to.... and he would probably suck at trying to argue anyways.

The honchkrow huffed, puffing his feathers out in anger. He debated just leaving, but he knew it would be considered abandoning the mission, and he would probably get into quite a bit of trouble for it. He appeared to be poofier than before, but otherwise remained silent towards the glaceon. Linus prepared to take off still, "We should get going, we still need to find and fight that Inkay," he huffed, his anger still apparent in his words.

Acro looked to Sova and then to Linus, silently pleading for the two to stop fighting. He knew it was rather unhealthy for fighting to occur around kids, wouldn't it encourage them to react violently to things? He didn't want this goomy to turn feral because of him! He really wanted all of this to just end. End. End. End. Away with all his problems, never to return. He looked up to the Honchkrow then to the glaceon once more, "Er...yeah...he's right, we still have one more job to do before we go..."

"CluckooCokoo!" the goomy spoke, enjoying the sound of the words on his tongue. He giggled at himself, finding the words to be rather amusing and entertaining. The goomy seemed to stop clinging to the archeops as much, and was much more calm now that it had forgotten that the two Taffys had existed. He looked to Mammy and his smile faded, what was wrong? Were Taffys bothering Mammy?

Sova's here for all your violent encouragement needs!

Sova shrugged his shoulders in neutrality.  "Alright then.", he commented before walking along his path, having to drop his body temperature and freeze up his fur to freeze the water as he neared te edge.  This whole path thing would have been a lot easier had he still had Ice Beam, or at the very least been able to use Frost Breath correctly.

"Do you think you're going to be alright?  Or do you need any help?", the whishcash questioned.
It wasn't that he didn't trust this group to succeed, he just didn't want to leave them if they didn't want him to.  Then again, there was less reason for him to stay now that the goomy was afraid of him.  At least the child seemed to have forgotten about its fears for the moment, though.

Keith followed along behind the glaceon without question, still being careful to keep his distance.  If he got too close, he risked shocking Sova or getting himself freeze-burned or worse by that uncontrollable icy attack the glaceon occasionally used.

"Uh...I don't know..." Acro spoke with honesty, struggling with the decision of whether or not to accept the help, "I guess it would be helpful for you to come along, I don't think it would be of any harm, and things would get done a bit faster if you were to come so we could get things done sooner..." Acro cut himself off, desiring to cease talking and merely hope that someone else might answer. He shouldn't be doing this. He REALLY shouldn't be doing this.

Linus watched the archeops fumble with his sentences, and huffed, "Yes, he wants you to come along," Linus spoke for the archeops. He felt a bit guilty immediately after, but held his head high, no sense in going back now. He kept his eye on the glaceon, Acro was too chicken to attack him, but the glaceon however was more of a loose cannon.

The goomy allowed himself to be set down on the boulder once more, not whining as he was more busy examining his reflection in the water. He began to make silly faces in the water, contorting his expression into different ways, wondering who that other goomy in the water was. He leaned in close, until his face came into contact with the other goomy, jumping back in surprise, as the other goomy rose out of the water, catching the attention of Mammy as he was suddenly picked up again.

"Well then, I guess that's settled. I'll gladly accompany you.", he said, just before the goomy was set down, just to be met by another goomy and picked up again. He wondered if the child had just made a friend, or an enemy.

Sova's ears perked up as a splash caught his attention. He spotted another goomy, however, and immediately wished his attention was on something else. Even if it was hostile, goomies were too boring to enjoy fighting at all. "Maybe that goop can lead us to the other goop's parents. Or at least to someone to take him.", he theorized.

Keith remained silent still, not wanting to cause any trouble for himself. He agreed with the idea of seeking the help of residents of the area to find the goomy's parents, but if the others didn't agree, well.... he didn't want to be dragged down with the glaceon. It was selfish and cowardly, but he didn't know the glaceon nearly well enough to be willing to do otherwise.

Linus and Acro watched as another Goomy appeared from the water. Acro quickly swiped the goomy from the other goomy, but seemed to upset the new one. It puffed its cheeks out in a pout, and began to glow and grow. Acro gave a squawk and ran away from the evolving goomy to take the child away from it. The goomy evolved into a SLiggoo, and it did NOT seem happy.

The honchkrow looked down at the situation, and watched as the SLiggoo seemed to threaten the Archeops and goomy as they fled. The sliggoo looked up to him, and seemed to pick the bystander as the first target. A dragon pulse erupted from its mouth, shooting towards Linus as the honchkrow just managed to get out of the way in time, diving downwards and swooping to the left as the dragon pulse obliterated any sign of the branch he had been sitting upon.

What's going on? Why was Mammy freaking out? The goomy blinked, looking around and wondering just what was going on. He found himself placed on yet another rock, and watched as Cluckoo was attacked, "TAFFY! TAFFY NO HIT CLUCKOO!" he shouted with rage at the Sliggoo. He began to pout, before shooting small Bubbles at the sliggoo, the bubbles popping harmlessly against the sliggoo, doing little to no damage, but hey, he tried.

"Oh, great.", Sova said as he watched the newcoming goomy evolve and proceed to attack Linus. Luckily, the honchkrow had managed to avoid the attack. Good, that meant he didn't have to save the crow. His fur flared into an armor coat of icy spikes as he prepared to attack, hoping to knock this thing out before it could hurt anyone. There were too many vulnerable targets here.... It seemed like everyone but himself and the wishcash was distracted by moodiness, so they were all risking getting seriously hurt. Of course, he was risking getting hurt too, but for him it was because he was, of course, the first to be interested in fighting. He ran forward and prepared to jump off of his icy path, towards the sliggoo, but the whishcash's voice prompted him to stop.

Keith, being the last to notice the new threat, watched in surprise as it evolved and attacked Linus. He backed away slightly in reflexive fear as Sova's fur spiked up, but he relaxed upon realizing it was just the glaceon preparing to attack the enemy. He followed behind the other eeveelution, even though he wouldn't be able to get in the water without shocking anyone near him. Maybe he could maneuver around on the icy path and other things above the water and get near the sliggoo that way? But it didn't seem to matter, as the glaceon was stopped.

"Wait, wait!", the whishcash pleaded to the hostile and evolved sliggoo.
It seemed to be acting rather childish, only becoming hostile when its new friend was taken away, so he assumed that perhaps it was a child. Maybe he could calm it down with some kind words! "Calm down, no one meant to upset you.", he said in a calm and kind tone as he slowly approached the aggressive goo dragon.

The Sligoo glared at the wiscash, before unleashing a Dragon Pulse at the friendly creature, obviously not wanting to take any of this wiscash's hospitality.

Acro gasped as the Sligoo attacked the wiscash, he was too far away to help, but moved in to attempt to help the wiscash, however the dragon pulse swiftly moved and drove the Archeops away, not wanting to get struck by the beam of dragon energy.

Linus attempted to get higher into the sky, trying to avoid the pulse of energy that seemed to follow him unintentionally. He gave a squawk as he pivoted around the pulse, narrowly avoiding getting scorched by the energy. He hesitated, desiring to attack but looking to make sure the Wiscash was alright.

The goomy blinked, not quite sure what was going on, but was wondering why that other goomy had suddenly changed and was attacking the others. Was it a Taffy? Would he turn into a Taffy? The goomy frowned at the idea, he didn't want to become a Taffy! How would he avoid this? Surely that goomy was just infected with some kind of Taffy-illness right? The goomy's eyes watered a bit, terrified that he might turn into a Taffy.

The whishcash turned sideways and put a fin up in an attempt to block the attack from himself, clearly not being invincible.  However, he wasn't hurt as much as one would expect the average pokemon to be, just kind of sitting there taking it and looking uncomfortable.  When the attack's target became someone other than him, he looked back to he sliggoo to see its attack being interrupted.

Sova rolled his eyes as the whishcash attempted to calm the feral pokemon.... and failed.  There were downsides in trying to see the good in others when it wasn't there.  He had the particular advantage of not caring about the good in someone.  If they were attacking him or his friends, they were an enemy and that was all there was to it.

He darted forward and leaped off his icy path near the slimy dragon, slamming into it and biting onto it.... or trying to.  However, he seemed to just slide around it and lose his grip, despite having fairly sharp teeth.  He fell onto the surface of the water, his chilling aura having been turned on and freezing the water around him into ice before he could fall in.  His attack had failed, but on the bright side, he had distracted the sliggoo and stopped its attack.

Keith watched the battle unfold, unsure of what else to do.  What was he supposed to do?  His only plan had suddenly become much less appealing as he watched Sova attempt it and fail.  If the glaceon couldn't do it with pretty much the same body and far more skill, there was no way HE could.  He felt rather useless, just sitting there watching, but he was ironically probably being more use than he would be if he tried to help.  If he did try, he would likely end up shocking someone.... and not the enemy.

The sligoo screeched as it was attacked, and swiftly reacted by crawling away from the glaceon as quickly as it could backwards, leaving another Dragon Pulse in its wake.

Linus decided to get a move on, turning sharply into a dive at the Sligoo, Pecking at the snail like creature's strange tail or shell body part. He avoided the Dragon Pulse just barely, the tips of his tail feathers being singed by the attack slightly. He gave a sqawk in surprise and pulled away from the dragon type pokemon, desiring to not get his tail feathers blasted off.

Acro took to the skies along with Linus, boulders surrounding him as they uprooted trees and shot forth from the water in attempt to use Ancient Power. The archeops could feel his ancestor's powers awaken, and the powerful rocks shot towards the Sliggoo, attempting to slam into it and stop the dragon pulse, perhaps shove a rock down its throat to stop the laser beam of death.

Taffy was bad, Taffy was being attacked, and the other Taffy was doing...nothing. Mammy, Cluckoo, and Spoop were all attacking the Taffy. He cheered them on from the sidelines, giggling happily as he waited for Mammy to take care of the Taffy. The goomy eventually got bored, and noticed a strange shape in the water nearby. He blinked, looking at the strange hat like thing that stuck out of the water. It had tentacles, but the goomy could not tell if it was moving or not...

Sova moved away from the Dragon Pules to avoid being hit, waiting for a chance to strike.  He would have to concentrate and hit it just right to not slip off the sliggoo....  Luckily, it seemed his two bird allies were providing fairly good distractions for him, whether they meant to or not.  The Ancient Power managed to knock it off its rock and the glaceon decided this was a good time to strike.  He once again leaped into it, this time ramming into it as it fell, in mid-air.  However, once again, he slid off of it and fell to the water's surface as ice froze under him.  The sliggoo splashed into the water and simply got up, showing the water in that particular spot wasn't exactly deep.

Keith watched from the sidelines, observing the battle.  He couldn't really participate, so why not watch?  He noticed physical attacks just slid off the sliggoo, which was a problem because the glaceon seemed to prefer close combat.  He thought for a moment before getting an idea.  "Freeze the water around it!"

Sova glanced as the jolteon before heeding his suggestion and darting into the sliggoo.  However, this time, he stopped as his paws touched it so he wouldn't slip away, beginning to freeze the water around it and freeze it in place.

The whishcash simply watched, seeming as if he couldn't bring himself to attack this enemy.  It was so childish, it had to be a child....  He didn't attack children, he protected them!

The sliggoo seemed to become enraged as he was frozen to the spot, the antlers upon its head stood straight up, quivering as if it were channeling some kind of power.

Linus's eyes widened as the water around the Sliggoo suddenly rose, the Muddy Water creating a large wave behind it. He gave a squawk and flapped his wings harshly, trying to get out of the way of the attack. He did NOT want to get caught in that! He turned around and flew in the opposite direction, moving upwards as he did until he was confident that he was out of reach of the attack. When he looked back, he found that he was quite a large distance away from the others! He darted back, looking to see the aftermath of the attack.

Acro had been too busy focusing on his Ancient Power, and was struck mid-air by the wave of Muddy Water. He screeched in surprise but his screech was cut short as he was submerged. The water dragged him down to the ground, unable to fly or see properly in the filthy water. He flailed, having been thrown into a deep part of the swamp by the water. He broke the surface, gasping and choking, and clung to a log that drifted by.

Shinka was out of harm's way of the attack, having wandered off to follow the strange moving rock with tentacles. The thing intrigued him, just what was this strange thing? He reached out to poke it with his antler, touching it slightly before retreating quickly in case the thing got mad. It didn't seem to react however...was it asleep?

Sova growled in frustration as the sliggoo broke free of his icy prison and created a wave of Muddy Water. He was planning on just outrunning it, due to the massive speed Ice Shard gave him and the even greater boost from moving on ice, but then he remembered a certain jolteon who wasn't quite as well-off.

Keith took a step back in fear as the wave approached. He knew he couldn't even try to run, not on the ice, he'd just slip and fall if he tried to move quickly. He closed his eyes and prepared to be slammed into the ice by the disgusting water, but instead, he just felt something ram into his side, followed by himself falling into the marsh. He stayed as deep in the water as he could in order to avoid the attack, a bit confused as to what'd happened. Then, when he came back to the surface, he pieced together what'd happened. He'd been saved.... yet again.

Sova bolted across his icy path and leaped back onto the main path, not having time to wait for the water in between to freeze over. He immediately pushed the jolteon out of the way, just before taking a hit from the Muddy Water and being smacked down into his own path. The water pushed him along before finally stopping, resulting in him sliding a bit and almost falling off his path. He coughed as he slowly got back to his paws, having swallowed some of the water.

The whishcash just kind of sat there like a useless potato, letting himself be pelted and pushed under the water by the attack. He rose back up as soon as it was over, seeming discomforted, but not really severely injured.

The sliggoo huffed, seeing that the group seemed to have learned its lesson for taking away its friend. However, now it seemed that the whole point of him fighting had wandered off. The sliggoo looked around in search of the goomy, but it was nowhere in plain sight, so it turned around and moved alone.

Acro was still coughing, his eyes burning and watering from dirt that had gotten into them. He pulled himself onto the log, and then onto a rather large fallen tree that was stable enough for him to lay on and try to recover from the attack. While he gasped for breath, the power he had felt from within seemed to be going away, leaving him feeling weak and hopeless. He coughed again, before forcing himself up, looking down at the water below as his Defeatist ability shifted his mindset to far worse turns than it already was.

Linus spotted the group, Acro seemed to look rather odd, Keith seemed alright, and Sova...he's Sova, he'll live just to pester him probably. The honchkrow found the wiscash, but seemed to not be able to find the goomy. He swerved around, searching for the small bundle of goo. Where had that little pest gone? It was just a child, he couldn't leave it alone in the wild even if it meant bringing it back to the three psychopaths.

The goomy was staring at the strange hat, growing a bit bored. He huffed, and poked it again. Nothing happened. Maybe it was...some kind of floating device? Like those logs that float around here! He smiled at this idea, and moved to jump onto the strange hat. He landed on top of it, and was surprised when they suddenly sunk and exploded back on the surface, the hat was flailing its tentacles, and threw the goomy off.
"Get off of me!" the hat cried.